Remember by Christina Rossetti

Christina Rossetti was a successful Victorian poet whose most famous work are the lyrics to the Christmas carol “In The Bleak Midwinter” (to the music by Gustav Holst). She has a couple of very popular funeral poems, Let Me Go and this poem, Remember.

Remember

by Christina Rosetti

 

Remember me when I am gone away,

         Gone far away into the silent land;

         When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

         You tell me of our future that you plann'd:

         Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

         And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

         For if the darkness and corruption leave

         A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

         Than that you should remember and be sad.